Rodriguez cruises to first-round win

Saturday

Jul 13, 2013 at 6:37 PMJul 13, 2013 at 7:00 PM

It was the probably the easiest $600,000 that Edwin Rodriguez will ever make. The undefeated Worcester super middleweight came out throwing punches from the opening bell and knocked down light heavyweight Denis Grachev twice before referee Stan Christodoulou stepped in to stop the carnage with 10 seconds left in the first round in the final of the MonteCarlo Million Dollar Super Four tournament on Saturday at the Salle de Etoiles.

By Bud Barth TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

It was the probably the easiest $600,000 that Edwin Rodriguez will ever make.

The undefeated Worcester super middleweight came out throwing punches from the opening bell and knocked down light heavyweight Denis Grachev twice before referee Stan Christodoulou stepped in to stop the carnage with 10 seconds left in the first round in the final of the MonteCarlo Million Dollar Super Four tournament on Saturday at the Salle de Etoiles.

Rodriguez (24-0-0, 16 knockouts) didn't give Grachev (13-2-1, 8) a chance to do any damage as the former two-time national amateur champion dominated the action from the start. It had been scheduled for 10 rounds.

Grachev took a solid left hook to the head early, which set Rodriguez up for his first knockdown with a combination and left hand after just 42 seconds.

Grachev bounced up and took the 8-count, but was set upon right away by Rodriguez, who used a blistering right hand, followed by a left hook and right uppercut, to drop the Russian native again with 56 seconds left in the round.

Rodriguez went right back in for the kill, caught Grachev with a big lead right hand that sent him stumbling into the corner. There, Rodriguez smothered his foe and was hammering him with a nonstop, two-fisted fusillade when the referee stepped in. The official time of the stoppage was 2:50 of the first round.

Rodriguez will get $600,000 for the win, Grachev $400,000 just for showing up. Rodriguez's share of the purse, however, has been frozen by the promoter until a dispute between the fighter and his estranged manager, Larry Army Jr., is settled back in the U.S.